Swords are Swords
by Eternatis
Summary: A sword is a sword is a sword, except when it's more. [Spoilers for Paine's past]
1. Brotherhood

A Sword is a Sword: Brotherhood

"Let me try!"

Yuna held out both hands, Rikku only one. Paine looked from one to the other with an eyebrow raised, and tossed the dressphere to Yuna.

A few minutes of fiddling - and Brother offering to help, which prompted Rikku to hit him - Yuna had the sphere ready. Her eyes closed in concentration, and she stretched up with her gun in her hands as a white glow surrounded her -

"Um, Shinra?" Rikku called.

"It's supposed to happen, don't worry."

The glow faded, and Yuna saluted them with her sword - then nearly dropped it.

Paine frowned - the fumbling was something she'd have expected normally, but the dresspheres usually had a positive effect on skills. Or gave them, whichever was more appropriate. But this fumbling wasn't the sort that came from not knowing how to hold a weapon - she'd seen plenty of that with the Crimson Squad, watching Baralai getting used to handling a gun. More the sort that came when you'd just had the shock of your life.

Yuna's held the sword up, the light shining through it in blue splashes and bubbles across her face, tracing her fingers down the blade and across the spike that doubled back down it. She looked as though she was keeping her expression blank on purpose.

"Oh no," Rikku said in a very small voice.

Once again, Paine found herself out of the loop - this was one of those summoner-guardian things that she couldn't be part of. Not that she _wanted_ to be part of them, not really, but at least then she'd understand what it was about the sword Yuna was holding that could upset her.

Finally, Yuna lowered the blade and smiled at them - a small smile that was about as genuine as any of Nooj's promises not to do anything that might put him in danger. A summoner's smile. She changed back to her gunner outfit, but her hand lingered over the sphere when she offered it to Paine as though she wasn't sure she wanted to do that.

"Something the matter?" Paine asked finally.

Yuna looked up at her, smile brightening slightly and still completely false. "Nope! Nothing at all."

Paine didn't believe a word of it, but didn't argue.


	2. Samurai

A Sword is a Sword - Samurai

There were things Paine didn't understand about Yuna and Rikku, and most of them were things she didn't _want_ to understand. (Although what was wrong with her that they were apparently immune to her threatening to lay down some serious hurt and stuck around anyway might've been nice to know.)

It didn't bother her - well, _they_ bothered her, on purpose most of the time, trying to get her to "open up" - until it had the potential to actually get them hurt.

Like Rikku with that new dressphere. The sword was as big as she was, even if you included all that hair, and Rikku couldn't even _lift_ it. When she fought, she had to drag the blade along the ground to attack. And - most importantly - Rikku was someone whose fighting strategy usually involved not being where the enemy thought she was, getting the hell out of the way before they hit her. She couldn't do that with the sword, and their potion stash was suffering for it.

Paine had meant to mention it. Well, she'd meant to steal Rikku's Garment Grid and take the dressphere off her, but stealing from a thief wasn't easy. The last time she'd tried it, she'd thought Rikku was asleep - but when she got upstairs, Rikku was just curled up in bed, arms around her knees and her hands lost in the billowing red sleeves of the coat. Her eyes were on the sword propped against the wall.

The way she looked at it - and despite its size, it was a good blade. Cumbersome, heavy even by her standards, but sharp and useful - was the way Yuna looked at the bubble sword that came when she used the Warrior sphere. It was the look that she recognised from her reflection in the windows of shops that sold Sphere Recorders after... After Operation Mi'hen, when she would stand outside the shops in Luca and look at them. They weren't right, they weren't the link to her past that they could be - that she wasn't even sure she _wanted_ them to be, but... They were close. Close enough that when she went inside and touched them she could taste the sand, could hear the guys yelling and smell the gunpowder.

Maybe it was like that for Rikku and Yuna - although she wasn't sure what those two could be associating with _swords._

And maybe it was understanding rather than frustration with failed attempts than made her stop trying to take the Samurai dressphere from Rikku.

And maybe - just maybe - Paine rolled over so her back was to the others - one night when Yuna was asleep and Rikku wasn't, because her eyes were glittering in the lights from the bar - and said "I thought the Al Bhed believed that memories were only memories?"


End file.
